Americana Photographs

The last couple months have been weird. Everybody knows. Weird probably isn’t the right word, but I’d like to stay away from the negative. And now that things (knock on wood) feel like they are loosening up a little bit, it’s caused me to look back on what has occupied my time during quarantine. Aside from the dishes, I’ve spent on lots of energy going through my absurdly large Lightroom catalogue that contains images from 2012 on. Specifically focusing on personal work that hasn’t been developed, I’m starting to see themes in the work that was never noticed before. This is very encouraging because I know it’s from all the time that’s also been spent on Zoom workshops about editing your work, creating photo books, how images work together, etc. etc. Didn’t realize it until now, but an education took place in the last 90 days that I’m extremely grateful for. All my time on the road over the past 8+ years has produced a handful of different bodies of work that I never knew how edit. Certainly not saying it’s figured out or will be, but things are adding up. It sounds simple, but one key that that was learned is that a common theme is necessary. “America” which has been a main focus for me, is not a theme. Just because I drive around this country taking pictures of it doesn’t mean all the images work together. Quite the opposite. It’s also quite a gem of power to learn and accept that you’ll frequently have to discard your favorite images from an edit because they simply don’t work for the bigger picture. Can’t stress that enough. Setting the ego aside can be a hard thing, especially for photographers who are so emotionally connected to their work. Has to be done though. And if the image is really that good, it will find it’s way into another body of work somewhere down the line. One theme I noticed popping up again and again over the past couple months is hotels. Apparently I enjoy hotels, and have photographed quite a few over the past 8 years. So expect to see more of them in the future.

Click here to see more from my “America” gallery.